Of the five, Simionato and Cossotto are quite noted for their portrayals of Santuzza which are also available on numerous live and commercial recordings. Simionato performed the Mascagni five times during her Met debut season—with, as was typical during the Bing years, four different tenors. Today’s pirate—the earliest complete private non-broadcast recording available of a Met performance—was her only collaboration in Cavalleria that year with Jussi Björling during his final appearances with the company. He’d go on to sing Turiddu over the next few weeks with Zinka Milanov and Mary Curtis-Verna.

Santuzza was a frequent role for Cossotto at the Met. She was to have starred in the premiere of Franco Zeffirelli’s production but the strike that canceled much of the 1969-70 season prevented that. Carlo Bergonzi also partners Cossotto on the famous Herbert von Karajan recording of Cavalleria but today’s pirate preserves the first of just two of their Met-Mascagni collaborations which was also the occasion of conductor Christopher Keene’s Met debut.

Crespin would sing just two Santuzzas with the Met and Hunter only one. Three years after her June Festival pair, Crespin took her portrayal to the San Francisco Opera where another more widely-available pirate recording with Placido Domingo was made.

Dunn’s Cavalleria career was a most unusual one. More commonly singers took on Mamma Lucia after having sung Lola or Santuzza. Dunn, however, first performed Mamma Lucia in 1959 during her debut season at the Met, later moving on to a single Lola in 1964. Santuzza came last to her in 1978. Today’s recording is a rare pirate that captures a Met-on-tour performance

Mascagni: Cavalleria Rusticana

Santuzza: Giulietta Simionato
Lola: Rosalind Elias
Mamma Lucia: Thelma Votipka
Turiddu: Jussi Björling
Alfio: Walter Cassel

Conductor: Nino Verchi
16 November 1959
Metropolitan Opera
In-house

Santuzza: Fiorenza Cossotto
Lola: Nedda Casei
Mamma Lucia: Jean Kraft
Turiddu: Carlo Bergonzi
Alfio: Anselmo Colzani

Conductor: Christopher Keene
24 September 1971
Metropolitan Opera
In-house

Santuzza: Régine Crespin
Lola: Judith Forst
Mamma Lucia: Batyah Godfrey Ben-David
Turiddu: Enrico Di Giuseppe
Alfio: Matteo Manuguerra

Conductor: Carlo Felice Cillario
9 June 1973
Metropolitan Opera
In-house

Santuzza: Rita Hunter
Lola: Mildred Miller
Mamma Lucia: Carlotta Ordassy
Turiddu: Harry Theyard
Alfio: Morley Meredith

Conductor: John Nelson
27 November 1974
Metropolitan Opera
In-house

Santuzza: Mignon Dunn
Lola: Isola Jones
Mamma Lucia: Geraldine Decker
Turiddu: Ermanno Mauro
Alfio: Cornell MacNeil

Conductor: David Stivender
Met Tour to the Kennedy Center
25 April 1981
In-house

Each Cavalleria can be downloaded by clicking on the icon of a cloud with an arrow pointing downward on the audio player above and the resulting mp3 file will appear in your download directory.

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Image: By Anonymous, attributed to Rauzzini; probably actually Luigi Morgari restored by Adam Cuerden – Gallica, PD-US